This is my first Wally Lamb book and at times I liked it but at others, I didn't. He provides in-depth character development of the core characters (Orion Oh, Annie Oh and their three children). Each character has their own personal demons to deal with (Orion never knowing his father, Annie dealing with the guilt of her baby sister's death and keeping secret the sexual abuse she endured as a young girl). Her anger is eventually expressed in her art which gains her success, acclaim and the love of a female gallery owner. But every one has a price to pay for the things, good and bad, they have experienced in their lives. Annie, for example, struggles with how tough she was on her son, physically abusive actually. I did NOT like reading Kent's twisted viewpoint justifying his abuse of Annie. It might have been ok to devote one chapter to it but after the third, it just sickened me. In the end, most of the characters find peace but you are left wondering if we are truly "like water" and flexible enough to withstand the force water can exert. I listened to this as an Audible.com book. I loved the various narrators who read the parts--that was excellent. But compared to previous Wally Lamb books--which I have always loved and felt astonished by, I could not give this a 5 star review, because I felt that listening to almost 12 hours of self-absorbed people telling their stories, explaining themselves endlessly before the climax brought the pieces together for the last several hours was a bit much. I liked the weaving in and out of the old artist's story with the rest--his naively created works along with Anna's (originally) naively created art had parallels, as did other parts of the story (won't be a spoiler). I'm not sorry I listened to it (I almost gave up after the first several hours--but kept on because there were a couple of narrators I am particularly fond of)--and I'm glad now that I heard it out to the end. Wally Lamb remains (to me) a very good story teller, but these characters were (for the most part) so unlikable that it was hard to hang in there for the early parts of it. I think what was redeemable in some of them was not revealed till close to the end. It is worth it--please do read it--but I felt it was not Lamb's best.
Do You like book We Are Water (2013)?
Wally Lamb writes women so well. This novel is heartbreaking and wonderful.
—dee
